The present invention pertains to microscopes. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a low cost, durable microscope having an adjustable angular orientation and a zoom magnification capability and permitting rapid alternating between two specimens without requiring tedious alignment or focusing each time the two specimens are interchanged.
A trade-off between quality and economics has long been necessary in the microscope industry, particularly with regard to microscopes for uses such as laboratory teaching aides in elementary and secondary schools where costs, being borne by the public, dictate that expenditures for such items as microscopes be kept as low as practical.
Major cost factors involved in the manufacture of microscopes are associated particularly with three elements, good quality lenses, precision focusing apparatus, and durable materials for assuring a long life of the microscope even under abusive handling. Attempts have been made to manufacture microscopes employing synthetic materials, e.g. plastics; however, these attempts have usually represented the making of undesirable trade-offs between quality and economics.
Frequently a microscope is used to compare one specimen with another in, for example, classes in biology. Conventional microscopes are cumbersome in this respect, in that the viewing and comparing of two different specimens require that each time a comparison of a different feature of the specimens is to be made, the two slides on which the specimens are mounted must be interchanged on the stage of the microscope, with attendant realignment of the specimen in the field of view.
It is often desired to study in detail the appearance of a particular portion of a specimen on a slide, which has been identified while being viewed through a microscope. In a microscope having a plurality of objective lenses, each offering a different magnification, the only method of enlarging the view of a specimen is to change to a higher power objective lens, causing disruption of the field of view, and often causing the viewer to have to resort the renewed alignment and focusing. By the time the user has gotten the specimen in view, he may have forgotten his mental image of the specimen under the prior objective lens. These difficulties hinder the educational process when such microscopes are used as teaching tools in schools, and generally they have caused the use of microscopes to be unduly burdensome.
Use of a microscope for an entended period of time, for example during comparison of various specimens or during close, detailed study of specimens, can be fatiguing, particularly if the microscope is not angularly oriented for greatest comfort.